Florida Atlantic head coach Tom Herman didn’t appreciate the shoe being on the other foot Friday.
Let’s rewind to October 14, 2023. FAU blew the doors off South Florida 56-14 in his first season under the former Texas head coach. It wasn’t a graceful win, as FAU tried to recover an onside kick and then went for it on fourth down while going up 42 points in the fourth quarter.
Leading up to this year’s game, Herman spoke openly about how he views USF as a rival, saying, “We don’t like them, I hope they don’t like us.” Those comments ultimately became an unfortunate prologue to a 44-21 win for USF.
And USF didn’t just beat FAU. On their last real play of the game, the Bulls went for it on fourth down while leading by 23 points and achieved it on a 10-yard pass.
As the game ended, USF head coach Alex Golesh tried to give Herman an icy handshake, which seemed to trigger something in Herman. He followed the coach and reprimanded him for several seconds.
At one point, Herman was seen turning around and about to yell at Golesh again, before his wife Michelle grabbed him by the polo sleeve and pulled him away. You don’t have moments like this in professional football.
Golesh downplayed the incident after the match, but acknowledged there was some motivation from last year’s loss:
“Not a whole lot of back and forth. Nothing, I said a year ago, would be back to get it and we came back to get it. Whatever is said is fine. I think it was said that we I think it’s said that we don’t like each other. I have a lot of respect for the staff. I think they’re doing a really good job. At least I don’t think we’re recruiting against each other. I can’t think of a guy we had to beat them to.
“We’ll definitely face them. I have a lot of respect for a lot of those guys, but I said we were going to come back and get it. Last year, at the end of the game, we were embarrassed at home. We came and got it, and we will continue to do so.”
The loss improves USF’s record to 4-4, while FAU now has a 2-6 record in its second year at Herman. The team has just one FBS win this season, over FIU.
